Port of Halifax is at the start of the new road, not the end of the old
Reading the National Post, one might reasonably conclude the Port of Halifax is the end of the Earth, or at least the end of the line. Under the headline, "Shippers divert cargo to Halifax from Vancouver, despite longer voyage and higher costs", a recent article implied Halifax is an expensive inconvenience forced on Asian shippers solely because of Vancouver's congestion. Think again. Major changes in shipping technology, and projected huge increases in shipping volumes, have now put the east coast of North America on the Pacific Rim. More: the Port of Halifax is emerging as a major gateway to the heartland of North America, and the only Canadian east coast port that can plug into these new developments.
AIMS Commentary: U.S. Flu Shot Shortage – Why Canada Should Stand up and Take Notice
How to reform drug policy, the latest paper from the AIMS series on Canadian pharmaceutical policy
Spending more and buying less, what is wrong with competition in health care?
In Canada (and elsewhere) health spending continually increases while queues get longer, doctors more scarce, and deaths from preventable mistakes get no better. In almost every other field or industry, technology and competition drive a constant revolution in value. This column discusses not the absence of competition, but the absence of the right kind of competion - and what we need to do to make things better.
Special Atlantica Edition – AIMS Online
Is there a natural economic region straddling the border between Canada and the US and including Atlantic Canada, northern New England, upstate New York and parts of southern and eastern Quebec, a region increasingly known as “Atlantica: the International Northeast Economic Region (AINER)”? AIMS thinks so and, as this AOL shows, so do a lot of other people, and the number grows larger every day.
This Won’t Hurt a Bit
The US flu shot crisis didn’t occur because of too little government involvement in the industry, but rather too much. "This Won’t Hurt a Bit: Why the vaccine crisis shows we shouldn’t believe what health “planners” tell us about how to reform drug policy" explains that, contrary to some recently published media reports, over-zealous governments have made the production of flu vaccines in that country very unattractive and helped to make less therapeutically valuable drugs the focus of industry attention.
China’s growth drives cargo to Halifax as West Coast ports hit capacity
The Port of Vancouver has become so congested with freight from China that importers -- including major retailers -- are bypassing the West Coast and docking in Halifax. The journey from Asia takes at least twice as long but shippers and their customers are trying to avoid the traffic snarls on Vancouver's docks and rail lines that can tie up goods for up to two weeks. Read this piece from the National Post to consider the reasons behind and implications of this latest development in global transportation and commerce.